American Dream

Greener pastures

by Catherine Dolinski
Staff Writer

July 6, 2005

Quotes:

It's not just housing costs keeping workers out of the county; some simply prefer to live elsewhere

Timothy Patrie tries to wake up by 4:30 a.m. to make the drive from Hagerstown to Tilden Middle School in Rockville, where he teaches grades 6 through 8.

Lately, the commute has been getting hard.

"I'm getting to the point were I'm so exhausted that it's tough," the 25-year-old teacher said. "I try to leave the house no later than quarter to 6; if I do, I can be at Tilden at 7:15. But for every minute I leave after that, the amount of extra time it takes to get there seems to increase exponentially."

The reason he lives in Hagerstown is largely the high cost of housing in Montgomery County, he said. Second-year teachers like Patrie earn between $40,000 and $47,000 a year, and Patrie said his wife earns only about half the money he does.

But there are other reasons:

Patrie's wife works at a mental health facility in Martinsburg, W.Va.; she has family near Hagerstown; and Patrie does not like the traffic that clogs Montgomery County's roads.

"I like Hagerstown very much," he said. "Most of my life I grew up in the suburbs or out in the sticks. Living near Tilden doesn't appeal that much -- it's too congested."

If he could afford it, Patrie said, he might move. To Frederick.

Soaring housing prices are forcing the middle class out of Montgomery County, politicians and housing activists say. Many of the county's teachers, police and firefighters are commuting from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which has sparked proposals to create "workforce housing" to help these vital workers live closer in.

But talking with long-distance commuters paints a complex picture. While nearly all agree that the cost of housing in Montgomery is discouraging, many cite a variety of other reasons why they choose to live in distant regions: family obligations, a desire for large houses or rural properties, even a desire to live near the Chesapeake Bay.

Peters said that while he cannot speak for everyone, he believes that many probably prefer a more rural setting to go home to.

"I see a lot of people moving away from the urban areas, up to Frederick and the Eastern Shore. They're not moving into a cheaper city; they're moving out," he said.